Trustees pick new boss for SAISD

Sole finalist heads district in Arizona.

Updated 11:34 pm, Monday, April 8, 2013

Manuel Isquierdo leads the Sunnyside Unified School District in Tucson, Ariz.

Manuel Isquierdo leads the Sunnyside Unified School District in Tucson, Ariz.

Photo: Arizona Daily Star

Trustees pick new boss for SAISD

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San Antonio Independent School District trustees, after a nine-month search for a new superintendent, on Monday named the leader of the second-largest school district in Tucson, Ariz., as the sole finalist.

Their unanimous choice was Manuel L. Isquierdo, 62, superintendent of Sunnyside Unified School District. He is described in published reports and by SAISD board chairman Ed Garza as a tech-savvy educator and student motivator.

“The board unanimously felt that Dr. Isquierdo has the qualifications. In his previous position, he took a district known as the dropout factory of Arizona to (become rated) an acceptable district,” Garza said.

“We were confident to name him a finalist, but I think we all want to honor the public process. Tonight was, in our mind, the first part of a public process.”

Texas requires a 21-day waiting period before Isquierdo can start working for the district. Garza said the time will allow for contract and salary negotiations and that the district will take steps to introduce him to the SAISD community.

Sunnyside has about 18,000 students, about a third of the SAISD enrollment of 54,000, and has been given a grade of C under the Arizona Department of Education's rating system.

The Arizona Daily Star, citing anonymous sources, reported that Isquierdo told his staff he was offered the job Thursday and accepted it. The SAISD board took no public vote before Monday but had discussed his candidacy Wednesday in executive session after interviewing him twice in recent weeks.

Garza said the board made the decision on its own time frame, regardless of what actions Isquierdo took in Arizona.

Isquierdo drew criticism for $12,545 in disallowed credit card charges that he reimbursed his district, and the Arizona attorney general's office last year ordered him and other district officials to get trained on election laws after student athletes were reportedly directed to campaign for school bonds in 2011, the Daily Star has reported.

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He has been at Sunnyside since 2007, and his base pay of $150,000 comes before other compensation that allows him to make up to $305,000 per year. It includes $75,000 for his role in marketing — in a district partnership with a Florida company — a laptop-based program he and his staff developed that has boosted graduation rates and lured dropouts back, the newspaper reported.

That financial arrangement was disclosed in a three-year renewal of Isquierdo's contract in 2011 that the district withheld from the newspaper for months, though it was a public document. His board members have defended his pay, saying he has turned the district around and holds people accountable.

Garza echoed the praise. He said SAISD trustees are aware of the Tucson district's partnership selling Isquierdo's laptop-based program but haven't discussed it yet in negotiations. He said SAISD has no plans to acquire the product.

“That school district, through his leadership, is a national model in instruction, on ... phasing out textbooks and transitioning to a high-tech environment,” Garza said.

Former SAISD Superintendent Roberto Durón's salary was $266,494 per year when he and the SAISD board negotiated his departure last year.

Monday's vote came two months after interim SAISD Superintendent Sylvester Perez pressured trustees to make a decision, giving them a July 1 deadline for his own departure after the board couldn't agree on one of three semi-finalists in February.

The board next spoke with three more semi-finalists and interviewed Isquierdo again March 29.

Shelley Potter, president of the San Antonio Alliance for Teachers and Support Personnel, said she hoped the new superintendent considers the salary sacrifices that teachers have endured of late.

“We certainly hope someone coming in as a leader in this district would also make sacrifices because it sets the tone for the district,” she said.

SAISD, the third-largest school district in San Antonio, has been without a permanent superintendent for more than a year. Durón stepped down in February 2012, after months of escalating tension with the board.

In the wake of a “voluntary separation agreement,” which prohibited trustees and Durón from making disparaging remarks about each other, community members urged the board to be transparent in its search for a replacement.

The board hired Perez as its interim leader in March 2012 and has praised him for boosting school morale and working well with employees and trustees. In June it hired Illinois-based company PROACT to recruit and vet candidates.

Trustees have drawn heat for what some have called a slow search. Garza has called the process deliberate. “We really want to break that cycle of picking short-term superintendents for SAISD,” he said last week.